The rapid deterioration of muscle and joint strength is common among former polio sufferers when they enter their 70s.

In the past, the recurrence of polio symptoms took them by surprise.

In 2017, almost all are prepared for the inevitable onset of “post-polio syndrome”. With polio only eradicated in Australia in 1991, there are bound to be more people entering old age after suffering polio as a child.

Bob Conbourne, the convenor of the Bendigo Polio Support Group, suffered polio as a seven-year-old child – but he did not know it at the time.

He recalled being ill with a fever in 1940, and one leg ended up 2.5 centimetres shorter than the other, but it took years before doctors confirmed he had suffered polio.

There were 40,000 confirmed cases in Australia, but Mr Conbourne believes there could be as many as 400,000 – many, like himself, who had no idea they had polio.

“One of the main symptoms was that you got a fever, like a heavy cold or the flu,” he said.

“I had that for about two days. I was bilious, I went home from school and went to bed for a couple of days, then on Monday I was OK and went back to school.

“I was OK, until the right leg didn’t develop as well as the left leg.”

Mr Conbourne avoided the iron lung, the salt baths and leg splints, but he too fully knows the effects of post-polio syndrome.

A range of doctors and mental health specialists spoke during Polio Day Saturday at the Bendigo Town Hall – the first time the event has been held in Bendigo.

The theme “Your mind matters” focused on supporting the mental health of former polio sufferers whose symptoms return later in life, and they find themselves with severely limited mobility.